The Enemy Within

Dear Laney,

To say I was sick yesterday would be an understatement. I thought your brother was trying to kill me from within, like that awful scene in the movie Alien, when... Never mind. Let's just say I felt really, really bad. As the saying goes, I would have had to feel better to die.

I still thought I could make it through an early-morning trip to Target with you for some essentials. Somewhere near the intersection of shoes & strollers, I bent over to pick up a piece of paper and found I couldn't stand back up. So I sat down next to the shoes display and prayed, "Dear Lord, let 'em not have to haul me out of here on a stretcher. Also, please watch over my toddler who is now probably 12 aisles away, taste-testing the bug spray." But to your credit, you sat down next to me. "As long as we're here," I asked you, "Do you want to try on some shoes?" "Sure, Mommy!" Because your mom was incapacitated in the shoe department, you now own a pair of purple galoshes. Thank goodness I didn't have my sinking spell over in Electronics.

I spent most of the rest of the day lying on Grandma Sue's couch, moaning. Grandma Sue watched you while I moaned, which was a huge help, although at one point she offered to go get me some Chinese food, which I thought would have been a real step back, gastrointestinally-speaking. Finally, your dad came and got us and drove us home.

Around 6p, your dad confessed that he had also had a stomach bug the day before, maybe the same one I was currently enjoying! With the added bonus of a baby!

You and your dad made macaroni and cheese for dinner (or, as you call it, "Mac O'Cheese"). You kept asking me, "Sick, Mommy?" and trying to feed me your cheesy pasta. You're not normally one to share your macaroni, so I could tell you really cared. I could also tell it hurt your feelings every time I said, "No, thank you." So finally I developed a system where I would take a bite, say "Yum!," and then spit it in the sink. That's the kind of gross thing you do when you really love somebody.

I'm feeling a little better this morning. But then again, I'd have to.

Love,

Mom